Pre-July 2009 Press Archives

Press Releases

8/17/2009 Revkin to speak at Linfield's opening convocation

McMINNVILLE – Andrew Revkin, a prizewinning reporter and author, will be the keynote speaker at opening convocation at Linfield College Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 2:30 p.m. in the Ted Wilson Gymnasium.

Revkin's presentation will reflect themes in the Linfield common reading selection, “Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change” by Elizabeth Kolbert. The book was the summer common reading project for all incoming students and will serve as a centerpiece for discussions and special programs throughout fall semester for Freshman Colloquium and other classes. Convocation is the traditional opening ceremony that celebrates the beginning of the new year. Faculty dress in academic regalia and new faculty members are introduced to the Linfield community. Classes at Linfield will begin Wednesday, Sept. 2.

“Field Notes from a Catastrophe,” which examines the phenomenon of human-induced global warming, began as a groundbreaking three-part series in the “New Yorker,” for which Kolbert won a National Magazine Award in 2006. In the text, she cuts through the competing rhetoric and political agendas to elucidate for Americans what is really going on with the global environment and asks what, if anything, can be done to save the planet.

Revkin has reported on the environment for The New York Times since 1995, a job that has taken him to the Arctic three times since 2003. That year, he became one of the first journalists to file stories and photos from the floating sea ice around the North Pole. Throughout his career, he has focused relentlessly on the century-scale challenge of providing energy for a growing human population without overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. Revkin continually covered the science and politics of global warming in more than 500 magazine and newspaper stories, two books, and a prize-winning Discovery-Times documentary, "Arctic Rush."

He has been a pioneer in multimedia journalism, blogging, podcasting, and shooting still and video imagery for stories from far-flung places. In 2007, Revkin created Dot Earth, a Times blog on climate, development and the environment. He is the author of “The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World,” “The Burning Season” and “Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast.” His work has won most of the top honors in science journalism, including the National Academy of Sciences Communication Award and two awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Before joining The Times, Revkin also worked at Discover, the Los Angeles Times and Science Digest. He has contributed freelance articles to the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, AARP's magazine, Conde Nast Traveler and many other publications. Revkin has a biology degree from Brown, a master's degree in journalism from Columbia, has taught at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and Bard College and has written two book chapters on journalism and the environment.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 503-883-2202.